Beijing CBD

This area has unique district advantages, perfect infrastructure facilities, rich land resources and vibrant business atmosphere. The total number of the enterprises in CBD is about 3000, with 500 multinational corporations, 570 foreign representative offices, 150 foreign-funded banks, insurance companies and agencies as well as 200 intermediary services. There are more than 3 million square meters of the existing business infrastructure facilities, including China World Trade Center, Motorola Plaza, the kerry Center, Hewlett Packard Plaza, Jianguo Hotel where accommodate hundreds of famous multinational companies and financial agencies, such as Motorola, Hewlett Packard, Ford, Samsung, BNP Parisbas Group, UBS AG. Currently, among 160 of the world’s Top 500 enterprises with their operations in Beijing, more than 120 have set up offices in the CBD and its surrounding areas.
The total construction area of Beijing CBD is some 10 million square meters, of which 50% is office buildings, 25% is apartments and the remainder 25% is commercial, service, cultural and entertainment facilities. The multi-functional design will make the CBD full of activity 24 hours a day. At present, 14 projects are under review or construction with a total construction area of 4.36 million square meters and a total investment of 47.6 billion RMB Yuan. Based on successful experience of the international CBDs, Beijing CBD will aim at becoming an ecological, cultural and international CBD.
To accelerate the construction process of Beijing CBD, Beijing Municipal Government decided to establish Beijing CBD Administrative Commission in charge of formulating development plans and related policies, drawing up detailed urban plan of the CBD, reviewing and approving the big construction projects in the CBD.
To construct a first-class international CBD in Beijing, Beijing Municipal Government launched an international public tender for Beijing CBD Planning Schemes in December of 2000 and formed the final urban plans based on the advanced planning idea and designing concepts of the collected schemes. The CBD Commission also entrusted some famous international companies to make individual plans of traffic, municipal infrastructure, information network, environment and landscape. Beijing Municipal Government has approved the Provisional Measures to Accelerate the Construction of Beijing CBD, which covers the policies of planning administration, land development, infrastructure construction, industrial orientation and investment environment.
According to WTO regulations and international practices, the CBD Commission will adjust the government administrative functions and mechanism in social and economic affairs within CBD. We hope to enhance the exchange and cooperation between Beijing CBD and international CBDs, meanwhile provide a business platform for the foreign companies to expand their operations in Beijing and in China.

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Beijing Zoo

Beijing Zoo, situated to the west of Beijing Exhibition Center, was known for a short time after the founding of the People's Republic as the Western Suburbs Park (Xijiao Gongyuan). The grounds combine cultivated flower gardens with stretches of natural scenery, including dense groves of trees, stretches of grassland, a small stream, lotus pools and small hills dotted with pavilions and halls.

In the 18th century, the zoo was known as the Sanbeizi Gardens, supposedly named after the third son of Emperor Kangxi, Prince Cheng Yin. Another explanation is that Sanbeizi refereed to the Qing courtier Fu Kang' an and the Gardens the site of his villa. In fact, as early as the Ming Dynasty, an imperial mansion called the Garden of Happiness and Friendship constructed for Prince Kang stood here, and during the Qing, part of the Sanbeizi Gardens called the Garden of Continuity (Jiyuan) became the private property of an official in the Bureau of Palace Affairs.
nder the successive rule of the Northern Warlords, the Japanese and the Kuomintang, the park became increasingly desolate. The only elephant died in 1937, and the Japanese, under the pretext of protecting themselves against air raids, poisoned the remaining lions, tigers and leopards. On the eve of the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949, the park housed only 12 monkeys, two parrots and a blind emu. The park was reopened to the public in 1950, and on April 10, 1955 formally named the Beijing Zoo.
At present, the zoo houses over 7,000 creatures of 600 different species, including the giant panda, red-crowned crane and Pere David's deer-all unique to China-as well as the African giraffe, rhinoceros, chimpanzee and antelope; American continent; wild ox from Europe; and elephant and gibbon from India.

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Beijing National Museum

The National Museum of China was inaugurated on February 28th, 2003, directly under the Ministry of Culture of P.R. China. Formed on the basis of the National Museum of Chinese History and the National Museum of Chinese Revolution, the National Museum of China is a comprehensive museum focusing on history and arts, systematically showing the long history of China.
The origin of the National Museum of Chinese History is the Preliminary Office of National History Museum set up on July 9th, 1912. As the People’s Republic of China was founded on the October 1st, 1949, the Preliminary Office was renamed as the Beijing National History Museum under the Ministry of Culture of the Central Government. Later on it was entitled as the National Museum of Chinese History in 1959.
The National Museum of Chinese Revolution grew out of the Preliminary Office of National Museum of Revolution set up on March 1950. In 1960, it was entitled as National Museum of Chinese Revolution In August 1959, the construction of the main building for the two museums was completed, to the east side of Tiananmen Square. On the October 1st of the same year, they opened to the public, on the occasion of the 10th anniversary of the People’s Republic of China.
The Museum of the Chinese Revolution emphasizes the history of the past 150 years, in particular the history of the Communist Party of China. It is divided into three sections. The exhibits in the Old Democratic Revolution section cover the period from 1840 to 1911. Events between 1911 and 1949 fall into the New Democratic Revolution section. The third section is entitled "The Triumph of the Revolution and the Establishment of Socialism" and covers events after 1949.Much of China's modern history is exhibited, including the founding of the Chinese Communist Party (1919-1921), the first two civil wars (1924-1927 and 1927-1937), the resistance war against Japanese aggression (1937-1945) and the liberation war (1945-1949). The museum is frequently updated to reflect the developments of modern political history.

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Beijing Olympic Park

The Beijing Olympic Park Garden, with very Chinese characteristics, has the initial signs of a sinking prototype. At present, construction on the whole project is being stepped up. The Chinese sunken garden will share characteristics with the compound, from the red walls of the Forbidden City to a traditional Beijing courtyard, and from the Millennium drum to the Tang Dynasty polo campaigns.
Seven traditional Chinese courtyards are taking shape as construction on the Beijing Olympic Park's central sunken garden enters its final phase. The seven courtyards are located along the north-south central axis of Beijing and between the modern sports venues, and serve as condensed snapshots of traditional Chinese culture.
Sculptures including a set of bronze-bells, the "Jiqing (Lucky and Festive) Drums," and Tang dynasty polo have already been erected and will soon be ready for visitors. Beijing’s Olympic Forest Park was made for the 2008 Olympic Games. The landscape architecture design was led by Hu Jie, director of the Landscape Planning and Design Institute at the Urban Planning and Design Institute of Tsinghua University. As with many architecture companies in the People’s Republic of China, landscape architecture firms operate as design arms of university departments.  The Beijing Olympic Park has an area of 680 hectares and was built between 2003 and 2008. It is at the north end of Beijing’s central axis, inviting comparison with the projection of the Grand Axis in Paris beyond La Defense. The competition-winning idea was to create an Axis of Nature. In accordance with traditional feng shui practice, this involved a hill at the north and a lake to the south. But it was decided that the earthmoving cost would be too high. The hills, woods and water concept is however along the lines of China’s imperial parks – and is very appropriate to Beijing’s climate, by turns very hot, very cold and very dry. 
The park was designed to accommodate tennis, archery and hockey events during the 2008 Olympic Games and a great public park, in which only electric vehicles are allowed, after the Games.  An expressway which crosses the park has been designed as a ‘green bridge’ ecological corridor over Beijing's Fifth Ring Road. It links the southern and northern parts of the forest park and is intended to be a landmark. The Olympic Forest Park has subway stations, an open air theatre, a lake, and a sophisticated system for bubbling air into the water for purification. In March 2008 Beijing’s Olympic Forest Park was awarded 5th IFLA-APR Award for Landscape Architecture.

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